During the post-soviet period, Ukrainian space agency embarked on the project of developing a three-stage Tsyklon-4 rocket for commercial missions. An agreement with Brazil called for the construction of the near-equatorial launch site in Alcantara, which would maximize the vehicle's payload. The rocket could deliver 5.5 tons to the geostationary transfer orbit and 1.5 tons to geostationary orbit. However the venture was delayed for years by political and financial problems in both countries. As of August 2011, the first launch of Tsyklon-4 was expected at the end of 2012 or beginning of 2013. The Ukrainian government promised to foot a bill for around 295 million grivnas. In addition to KB Yuzhnoe in Dnepropetrovsk, supplying the rocket, OAO Azovmash was awarded contracts for nine articles of ground-support hardware to be installed in Brazil. ChAO AzovElektroStal and Bubnov wagon GSKB were building propellant storage tanks, neutralization station.

Recent
developments

Industrial
investigation of the Tsyklon-3 failure concludes

2001
Jan. 9, updated Jan. 11: The commission of KB Yuzhnoe, Ukraine, investigating
the latest failure of the Tsyklon-3 rocket
concluded its work this week. Although the report by the commission has
not been made public, the industry representatives said the control system
in the third stage of the vehicle most likely caused the failure. Kiev
Radio Plant in Ukraine manufactured the control system onboard Tsyklon-3,
however, some elements of the system are supplied by a Russian manufacturer
based in the city of Saratov. A source close to investigation said that
this subcontractor might be blamed for the failure. At the same time,
the representative of Rosaviacosmos said that telemetry received during
the launch showed that steering mechanism controlling the engine of the
third stage stuck during the flight. It was not immediately clear if the
control system could be responsible for this anomaly.

The
official conclusion about the cause of the accident will be made by an
interagency commission, which includes representatives from KB Yuzhnoe,
Rosaviacosmos, National Space Agency of Ukraine (NKAU) and Plesetsk launch
range. The interagency commission expects to release its findings on February
15, 2001.

Tsyklon-3
booster blasted off from Russian northern launch site in Plesetsk
at 21:56 Moscow Time on Dec. 27, 2000. The vehicle was carrying three
Strela (Arrow) satellites for military communications and three "civilian"
versions of the the same spacecraft, known as Gonets D1 (Messenger). The
failure took place during the third stage operation, causing the premature
shutdown of its RD-861engine.
According to Rosaviacosmos, the launcher and its payload crashed in the
frozen Eastern-Siberian Sea, 58 kilometers southeast of Wrangel Island.

In
June 1998, the third stage of the Tsyklon-3 rocket also failed during
the launch, leaving the cluster of Strela and Gonets satellites stranded
in the incorrect orbit.

2001
July 31, 12:00 Moscow Time: The Tsyklon-3 rocket successfully returned
to flight after December 2000 failure, delivering Koronas-F
spacecraft into nearly 500-kilometer orbit with the inclination 82.5 degrees.
The launch took place from Site 32 in Plesetsk.
According to KB Yuzhnoe, it was 119th launch of the Tsyklon-3 rocket,
of which 114 were successful.

A 182-ton
two-stage rocket blasted off from Site 90 in Baikonur
at 07:00 Moscow Time on December 21. The rocket was carrying a US-PU
satellite built by the KB Arsenal development center in St. Petersburg
and designed to provide electronic intelligence and missile guidance information
to the Russian Navy. The rocket successfully inserted the spacecraft into
a transfer orbit with an apogee of 400 kilometers. The satellite, officially
designated Cosmos-2383, was then expected to use its own propulsion system
to reach a final orbit around 07:48 Moscow Time on December 21.

2001 Dec.
27 (EST): In the last space launch
of 2001, a Ukrainian-built rocket delivered a sextet of communications
satellites into orbit after an early-morning blastoff from Russias
northern cosmodrome in Plesetsk.

The three-stage
Tsyklon-3 booster took off from Launch Complex 32 in Plesetsk at 06:24
Moscow Time on December 28. The rocket was carrying six satellites, including
three Gonets D1 (Messenger) spacecraft intended to replenish
a low-orbital communications network. Remaining three satellites onboard
the rocket belonged to the Russian Ministry of Defense and in an accordance
with the standard practice for the military
spacecraft were identified as Cosmos-2384, -2385 and -2386.

The third
stage of the Tsyklon-3 rocket normally inserts the entire cluster of six
spacecraft into circular orbits with an altitude of about 1,400 kilometers
and an inclination of 82.6 degrees toward the Equator. A previous attempt
to launch a Gonest/Strela cluster ended in a failure a year ago. (The
latest launch was previously planned for December 22 and December 26,
2001).

2004
May 28: Russia launched a classified military payload to monitor foreign
Navy activities.According to the Russian Space Forces, KVR, a
Tsyklon-2 rocket carrying a Cosmos-series satellite blasted off from Baikonur
Cosmodrome at 10:00 Moscow Time. Four minutes later, the spacecraft separated
from the upper stage of the launch vehicle. The payload was identified
as Cosmos-2405.

Tsyklon-2
routinely delivers US-PM electronic intelligence,
ELINT, spacecraft designed to detect sea vessels by intercepting their
radio signals. The information from the satellites reportedly can be used
to navigate Russian cruise missiles
toward their targets. This mission was originally expected at the end
of 2002. A previous spacecraft of this type was launched in December 2001.

2004
Dec. 24:The
Tsyklon-3 rocket carrying the Sich-1M spacecraft along with the KS5MF2
micro-satellite was launched from Site-32 in Plesetsk
at 14:20 Moscow Time on December 24, 2004.

The remote-sensing
Sich-1M spacecraft was supposed to be delivered into a 681 by 640-kilometer
orbit with an inclination of 82.5 degrees toward the Equator, however
initial radar observations by NORAD found the third stage of the launch
vehicle and both payloads in the 281 by 639-kilometer orbit. It could
be an indication that the second burn of the Tsyklon-3's third stage failed,
leaving the spacecraft in a useless and unstable orbit. The second ignition
of the third stage engine to circularize the orbit was expected to take
place 39 minutes after the launch.

In the meantime,
the official press release from KB Yuzhnoe in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine,
which built both the launcher and the payload, stated that the mission
successfully reached its intended orbit. Only 48 hours after the launch,
Russian sources confirmed that the launch did not reach intended orbit
due to the abnormal performance of the third stage and the orbital life
span of both satellites will be cut short as a result. Sich-1M might work
only one year instead of three, while KS5MF2 could reenter after six months.
Unofficial reports from Ukraine also indicated that after separation from
the third stage, both satellites tumbled in space, thus greatly reducing
power supply from solar panels.

Russian mission
control supported this launch, however Ukranian ground control station
took over the responsibility for both payloads after they reached orbit.

The
mission was delayed from December 2003, middle of 2004 and the end of
November 2004.

2006 June 25: The Tsyklon-2 rocket, blasted off from Site 90 in Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 25, 2006, at 08:00 Moscow Time.

The official statement of the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, said only that the launch vehicle carried a payload for the Ministry of Defense and the flight proceeded nominally. It is known that launches of this type carry electronic intelligence satellites from the US-P/US-PU family. The previous spacecraft of this type was deorbited on April 28, 2006.

This launch was previously expected on June 22, 2006.

2009 Jan. 30, at 16:30 Moscow Time: The Tsyklon-3 rocket lifted off from Site 32 in Russia’s northern cosmodrome in Plesetsk, carrying the 1,900-kilogram Koronas-Foton satellite. According to Russian space officials, the Koronas-Foton spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle at 17:14 Moscow Time, as planned. The first radio-measurement of the satellite's orbit was expected at 18:02 Moscow Time.

This page is maintained by Anatoly Zak. All rights reserved. Last update:
August 2, 2015